Category: Homemade Meals

There is something about the colder weather that always has us craving comfort foods. I like to think it is our stomachs reminiscing our Grandmother’s cooking with the holidays, but we joke that cooler weather brings layered clothing aka our focus on eating healthy is is let loose. Recently we tried this chicken pot pie recipe. Preston loves chicken pot pies and lived off them as a child, so when he found this recipe on the cover of Food and Wine Magazine, he knew he had to make it.

Let us warn you: it took a lot longer than anticipated. We started it at 6 pm on a Sunday night and were not done cleaning up until closer to 10 pm. Part of this was a struggle with the dough that we will share. As tasty as the made from scratch crust was, we might use a store bought dough to speed up the process.

Below is the recipe:

Crust:

2 1/2 cups flour

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup duck fat (this is what we used since we save duck fat) or schmaltz (rendered chicken fat, but hard to find in a grocery store)

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp buttermilk

Filling:

2 lbs skin on, bone in chicken

Dash salt and pepper

1/4 olive oil

6 cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth

1/2 stick unsalted butter

1 medium onion, diced

1 large carrot, diced

1 celery, diced

3 garlic closed, minced

1/4 cup flour

1 1/4 cup whole milk

1/4 minced fresh parsley

2 tbsp minced chives

2 tsp minced thyme

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 large egg (beaten with 1 tbsp of water)

Directions:

First, make the crust. blend everything in a food processor, starting with the flour, sugar, and salt. Roll out the dough into a 12 inch round, 1/4 inch thick piece of dough. Then ease it into the pan. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans to keep the crust against the pan. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and let cool.

Make the filling by seasoning the chicken with salt and pepper, cook the chicken until fully cooked and browned. In this case, we used leftover homemade roasted chicken. Then add the chicken stock and boil. Let the chicken cool while you caramelize the carrots, celery, shallots, garlic, and onions in a saucepan with butter and oil. Once cooked, add the chicken to the saucepan. Gradually stir in the milk and reduced chicken stock. Once thickened, stir in the parsley, chives, thyme, vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Cool for 30 minutes.

Roll out the remaining half of the dough to make the top crust. Once rolled out, place the filling into the bottom of the pie pan over the base crust. Then place the top of the crust over the pot pie. Brust the crust with the egg wash and cut slits into the top to vent steam while cooking. Bake the potpie for 40 minutes until the crust is brown and the filling is bubbling. Let cool before serving.